Base32

The flouncing 47th President. 15th May: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c4ge3e7dqleo 20th May: https://news.sky.com/story/unlimited-potential-in-us-russia-trade-says-trump-after-two-hour-putin-call-13371047 21st May: https://unn.ua/en/news/sort-it-out-yourselves-nyt-found-out-what-trump-told-zelenskyy-after-calling-putin

Or not ahead or behind, but if they think laterally. Maybe they'll win a war before its started.

For all we know, the China may possess weapons the likes of which the world has never seen. Iron Dome costs $50m per battery, plus other costs. 10 batteries cover Israel. To get the same coverage in the US requires 4500+ type system, so I can see where the estimates of $250-500 billion are coming from. That requires a doubling of the defence budget. Its all Hot Air. The world knows it. Just like his supposed brilliant deal making powers. Smoke screen. He bangs on about how broke America is, how its got no money, because everyone took from it, Can't have it both ways.

Hamas didn't originate in a vacuum. Like others, such as populist politicians elsewhere, they took advantage of a crap hand and exploited genuine concerns, fears and well founded resentment for their own ends. Arguably, Ariel Sharon's ineptness in his unilateral disengagement plan (in the face of both cabinet and Knesset opposition) created the power vacuum that allowed Hamas to seize control, something ironically Netanyahu warned about. Ironically, in an effort to keep himself out of prision, Bibi then made sure Hamas got the money it needed. And here we are. Germans never attacked the Nazis. They more or less stuck with them to the end. The founders of Hamas are a whos who of people with chips on shoulders, born in either forcibly depopulated villages (aka pogroms), or refugee camps. There is an utter cycle, exploted and exploited. A sense of injustice sustained the young Israeli state during its formative years, when it had no friends in the world. For some would be Israelis, that lead them to do great things in politics, in the arts, in science, in business. But there was for some, an instinct for heinous violence (the Stern Gang, or Lehi, murdered British soldiers). Most Palestinians won't attack Hamas, like for the same reason most Palestinians won't attack Israelis. The reason being that humans aren't like that. I have never felt the urge to punch a bloke in the street, and neither have you, I suspect. In WW2, the French people, the Dutch people, the Polish people, the Czech people, never rose up en masse against the occupiers. Most got through the War living an ordinary life. Same in Iraq, and other places. The ones who pick up the guns, in any society, are always the minority.

OP is Daft as a Basil Brush. What, "locals" have to "learn" at Berkeley. Guess he went to the School of Hard Knocks and the University of Life. I can guess which side he was on, on 4th May, 1970. I suppose he is a strong supporter of the CCP's orders to the formerly Royal Hong Kong Police to open fire on protesting students who should have been studying.

Unless you were one of those voters who was working on one of the actual 747s being built as new AF1s to be told they were out of a job, as they don't need the plane now. Laurer Loomer seemed a bit put out by it. Ben Shapiro, I think he's one of them, banged on about it Mark Levin was somewhat perturbed by reports that the President was getting a plane off people he considered evil incarnate.

Quite. I don't understand the obsessing about where Sars-Cov-2 or Spanish Flu came from either.

It gets better. The fact it was for sale isn't coincidental either. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/19/politics/trump-adminstration-approached-qatar-jet Full spec from the Sale ad https://web.archive.org/web/20200905142708/https://www.amacaerospace.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/200707_AMAC_Aerospace_Mini_Tech_Spec.pdf But does it still have the Northrop Grumman AN/AAQ-24(V)N Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasure (LAIRCM) system installed? https://www.flightglobal.com/business-aviation/us-clears-sale-of-ir-countermeasures-for-qatari-bbj-747-8is/134462.article Even Sam Chui covered it.

Only $100m if they choose to replace it. And there are some disputes on value. Tha't inflation for you. https://united24media.com/latest-news/ukrainian-recon-unmasks-and-destroys-russias-45m-buk-m3-air-defense-system-video-8063 Whats more important is how many they have left. Russia had about 100 Buk-M3 new builds; in principle, older variants can be reworked. They had about 400 systems to start with, but they can probably swell their numbers from Belarusan and Iranian sources.

The results of "the WW2" as you put it (in pidgeon English) involved the blokes who planned the invasion and seizure of lands being tried and hanged, and the one who started it blowing his brains out. So I have you on record; you want the entire Russian General Staff to be strung up and hope that Putin kills himself, whatever lover he has right now, along with his dog. The results of "the WW2" also involved the country who was the aggressor undergoing a 50 year occupation by foreign forces, that included the eventual political dismemberment of said country, so you are calling for the Russian Federation to be dissolved, forcibly. The process also involved the dismissal from positions of government those political devotees of the said aggressor government (the Muscovites). So, as you sit in your government funded troll farm in St Petersberg, I'd be looking for a new job soon. This one won't be paying you much more. You are a racist and sectarian pig who has repeatedly denied the right of the people of Ukraine to seek self determination. And you smell.

I'm not the Forum Police, Comrade. Presumably, you have reported the poster.

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The sound of furious back pedaling by Zeliboba (Зелибоба). You slag off the Financial Times based on an anonymous forum posting that breaks forum rules. Gullible isn't in the dictionary/

He's not Russian. That's just an alter ego.

True sterilising vaccines, ie vaccines that stop the onward transmission of a disease, are actually extremely rare. Generally it takes about 20 years of work to arrive at a vaccine that does that. Take the measles vaccine. Its not a sterilising vaccine. If you take a class of kids, all vaccinated. The measles virus circulates among them. The vaccine isn't stopping that. What the vaccine stops is the development of measles, ie the rash. FWIW, I am currently into day 4 or 5 (maybe day 9 if I count the asymptomatic period) of my latest Sars-Cov-2 infection. Its a little different from previous this time around, following a whizzbang tour of Portugal and Italy. There are about 25,000 variants in circulation. But like symptoms, there lies the rub. Defining "COVID-19" has always been problematic; we will be more clear what it means in 10-15 years. The official language is problematic. We talk about getting a "COVID test"; the tests do no such thing. All they are detecting is a recent Sars-Cov-2 infection. Its strange, because most people do know, by now, that a HIV test is not an AIDS test. We know when the Measles vaccine works; kids don't come out in a rash. I think a COVID-19 diagnostic definition has to eventually include hospitalisation, ie you don't have COVID-19 if you don't meet criteria for admission to hospital, and that the effectiveness of the resulting vaccines is measured by hospitalisation rates. If you are sitting there, like me, nursing a thick head, dribbling nose and a hacking cough, you don't have COVID-19, though many will big it up a bit to elicit sympathy. The test for attitudes is "I've just had a positive test. I'm off to the supermarket". Would you? I just did. My wife will wear a mask, mostly when on a motorbike to protect her face, but often when around monks, which is actually the correct reason to wear a mask; to protect others, rather than to protect yourself (I could go into a discussion of filter dynamics, brownian forces, van der waals forces, but it will be fruitless now).

You muppet. Did you go and look at the 2024 parade, which the FT (and others) reported on. Or were you furiously googling to defend your Rapey Hero, you forget to check the dates. One tank on display: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/putins-one-tank-victory-parade-is-a-timely-reminder-russia-can-be-beaten/ 1 tank on display https://www.newsweek.com/putin-victory-day-parade-moscow-tank-t-34-1898740 1 tank https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/09/putin-watches-victory-parade-with-just-one-russian-tank/ The Kremlin's own report, 1 tank http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/73995 Thanks for outing yourself.

Is this with a Scottish or Aussie accent? Gibson, De Niro, Pacino, Grant, Dyer, Pitt, Voight, Woods, Barr et al, all have Freedom of Expression and can say what they like. The British approach is the correct one; the government has no right to interfere in your freedom of expression. But you have no right to be heard.

Interestingly, Biden was likely suffering from a series of UTIs prior to diagnosis. UTIs can generate deranged behaviour that can be confused with dementia. The hormone therpy used can also cause memory problems. A former work colleague was somewhat depressed to be told he was developing early onset dementia. But this turned to relief when he was later told it was in fact bladder cancer. Biden has Stage IV Prostate Cancer. He has a less in 1 in 3 chance of making it past 5 years. Interestingly, the President is a habitual use of finasteride, which is both a drug used for hairloss, but also used to reduce an enlarged prostate. The President's son alleges there has been a cover up. Indeed, Enquiring minds require information when the current President last underwent a digital rectal exam, and when the next one is planned.

In "Da Hood" by the sounds of it. He needs a Mac 10.

The full quote, from a sci fi novella, is often truncated, to change the meaning. The quote is attributed to Robert Heinlein, and used as a justification for carrying a firearm. However, its a quote from a character he created. The character is the product of generations of eugenics, essentially, a Master Race. Genetic manipulation has extended life spans such that overpopulation becomes a concern, and dueling is reintroduced as a means of population control. The character believes shooting someone is a good way to weed out the inferior and untermenschen. The whole purpose of the paragraph isn't that guns made society safer but it made society more dangerous for the slow witted, the inferior, the sick, the elderly, the young. "Beyond This Horizon" really is an account of a dystopian Darwinian nightmare, where to be murdered is proof of inferiority, and to be the murderer is to be exalted (and to be unarmed is to be shunned). In this book, to be polite actually means to be terrified, so Heinlein was trying to be clever, like Orwell, with Double Speak. So its a nonsense quote, only half of it remembered. It can be picked apart considering historic evidence. Was Iraq, post Saddam Hussein, full of incredibly polite people with guns (Arabs can be very polite, but its not because of the guns). Similarly Mogadishu in the 1980s. Hence this is probably a wind up posting, not really about pistols per se, because the OP was all too ready to spout back the quasi-political stance, rather than actually anything practical. I have friends who have many guns, for many purposes, so I am fairly neutral about gun control. I am not opposed to gun ownership. Many literery quotes can be wheeled out to support gun ownership, but quoting a pacifist Sci-Fi novel is not the way.

That might be so, but you stated: If American society is that polite, then its not necessary to "rearm"? Millions of Americans choose not to arm (polls indicate only 1 in 3 actually professes to own a gun, most, for various reasons). In my experience living and working there, you don't actually "need" a gun to get by in life. Americans tend to say they find the British incredibly polite. It sounds like you are scared stiff of walking the streets of America, or the bits of American that you frequent, unless tooled up. A gun is necessitated, in your view, in the US, but, by dint, is not necessary in Europe. This is entirely a different discussion from having the ability to have a side arm. Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Switzerland and Italy do have carry permits, after a lot of hoops to jump through (quite rightly). If you are receiving actual death threats, or there is something about your job, you can get a CCW for Austria. Of course, in Northern Ireland, members of the security forces and certain other Crown servants will always have a side arm on them, on duty and off duty. Personally, I think this is a wind up post, posted deliberately to be provocative, on a forum where most members are not Americans. You will get a more reliable set of answers on specialist gun forum, where participants might be more familiar with current regulations and models, compared to expatriates with varying experiences.

1. Groucho Marx Marcus Tullius Cicero Richard Nixon Sterling Archer (Danger Zone) Abraham Lincoln George Washington Christopher Hitchens Alan B'Stard Edmond Blackadder

No, it means the battlefield, which was previously made up of towns and villages, with people going about their business, has been rendered a wasteland. Mostly military casualties, because the population has mostly fled from the genocide. But Russians continue to seek out and target civilians. In WW1, there were about 400,000 civilian deaths on the Western Front, compared to 3-4 million military deaths. I don't think you can characterise combat in the Great War as being "precision". There have been numerous incidence of Russian forces deliberately targeting civilians, eg the FPV drone attack on the minibus. The Drone operator would have looked into the eyes of the babushkas and dedushkas as his chose his spot to strike. He clearly targeted the compartment with passengers, as the motor part of the bus is completely intact. The Financial Times carried out an investigation that indicated Russia used drones in 2024 to deliberately target civilians in Kherson, both to force them to flee from their homes, but also as literal target practice, proving once more that Russian is carrying out genocide, and, in German terms, little more regards Ukrainians as "untermenschen", an attitude shared by several correspondants on this forum who are openly supporting of Putin's War of Agression and rape. https://www.ft.com/content/31b630b3-2639-456c-ba50-3caea7a9b2b5

Tariffs are paid by the importer, which might be a subsidiary of an exporting company, or, and more commonly, the appointed distributor. Tariffs are paid ad valorem; based on the value of the goods. Essentially, the tariffs is paid on the final selling price. When a distributor imports goods, typically they buy for a sell-in price and sell for a sell out price, with their margin based on a percentage of the difference. Walmart owns no factories in China. Most of their Chinese goods are directly imported based on a Sale-In Price. Payable tariff is calculated based on Sell Out prices. Tariffs will not trigger force majeure. Walmart operates on quite small margins when you look at that recent 10-k. I'm sure the kids will love the Corn Dollies and Sticks for Christmas.

Now Musk Grok does Holocaust denial https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/18/musks-ai-bot-grok-blames-its-holocaust-scepticism-on-programming-error